A guard called from the stairwell. “Sir. You’ll want to see this.”
Hidden cameras. A crude recording setup. Hours of footage. And in one clip, Mirelle sat on the floor, pale but alive. A man entered the frame carrying food. Jack clenched the edge of the table. He recognized him. Rurik, a former logistics assistant Jack had dismissed months earlier for suspicious behavior.

Before the police could locate Rurik, Jack’s own team traced his phone to a lodge near the foggy outskirts of Ferncrest Woods. They moved fast. When the team stormed inside, Rurik panicked and dropped a suitcase.

“Where is my wife?” Jack demanded.

Rurik sobbed. “She is not here. Someone else took her. I was paid to keep her hidden.”

“Who paid you?”

“A woman called Ysella Fontaine,” he blurted. “She blamed Mirelle for ruining their consulting firm. She said Mirelle deserved to vanish.”

The name hit Jack like a cold tide. Ysella had been Mirelle’s closest collaborator years ago before their partnership collapsed.